BASEBALL

BASEBALL;The Indispensable Yankee

By JACK CURRY

Published: May 26, 1996

SEATTLE, May 25—
Mariano Rivera reached into his locker, lifted the lid off a shoe box and described how the cardboard would have made a perfect baseball glove for him as a skinny 7-year-old in Panama. Rivera sounded like a giddy kid as he spoke of tearing a hole in one narrow end of the cardboard and then poking his hand through to the other side for a homemade glove that would last for weeks. Well, maybe for a few days.

As Rivera discussed his first memories of baseball, he never stopped beaming and never stopped using his words, his hands, his eyes and his laugh to convince a visitor how special those warm days on the dusty streets of Puerto Caimito really were.

It did not matter that Rivera had to snatch rocks, tennis balls and taped-up balls in a flimsy cardboard glove. It did not matter that the bats were usually plastic. It did not matter that there were no grass fields and that the rhythm of games depended on the traffic flow on the streets. To listen and to watch Rivera, his introduction to baseball was pure nirvana.

"It makes me smile and it makes me happy to think about that," Rivera said. "It makes me feel good. I'll always have that inside me. I'll always remember seeing the kids playing back home. I still play with them. If I was there now, I'd be playing with them. They love me."

So innocent, so soft-spoken, so genuine. That is the Rivera who reads the Bible in the clubhouse, who sends boxes of equipment home to Panama so other children will have real gloves, who worked daily as a fisherman with his father, Captain Mariano, and who strangely insisted that he did not even consider becoming a professional player until after he signed a contract.

"You see most kids trying to be Nolan Ryan or Don Mattingly," Rivera said. "I never had that. I never thought about being a pro. I just got the ball, got my glove and enjoyed the game."

So dominant, so overpowering, so valuable. That is the Rivera who could be the most important pitcher on the Yankee staff, who has not allowed a run in 25 straight innings spanning five weeks, who did not give up a hit in 15 consecutive innings from April 19 to May 5 and whose versatility helps to make Joe Torre's job of juggling an erratic bullpen more manageable.

But Torre, who vowed that he will avoid the temptation of starting Rivera even after Scott Kamieniecki was pounded again for six runs in the Yankees' 10-4 loss to Seattle on Friday night, will say it.

"He's our most indispensable pitcher," Torre said. "Especially with Cone and Key out and our bullpen the way it is. He gives me protection. I'm not moving him. I can use him three times in five days. I can't do that if I start him."

Rivera would love to be in the starting rotation and wants to close later in his career. For now, he is content pitching middle relief and setup and being one of the scariest weapons in baseball. With an explosive 96-mile-an-hour fastball, a jumpy cut fastball and a fierce slider, the right-hander uses these moving pitches to plow through teams for three innings and repeats this routine two or three times a week. Rivera is developing a changeup to improve his chances of eventually becoming an effective starter.

"Starting is still my choice, but closer down the road," said Rivera, who is 3-0 with a 0.83 earned run average, 2 saves, 33 strikeouts and 11 walks in 32 2/3 innings. "Starting is my thing. I don't see it this year. I have to do my job this year."

Although Rivera has a mere 160 days of service time, Ozzie Guillen of the White Sox has called him the finest pitcher in baseball and Twins Manager Tom Kelly lamented that he should be pitching in a superior league. Rivera's hands stop moving and his head starts shaking from side to side when he discusses the supreme compliments.

Rivera is different, different because he is so superb and different because he is so humble. He put the pieces of cardboard away when he was 10 and his father gave him his first glove, a shiny piece of leather that became an extra appendage since Rivera lugged it to classes, to church and to bed.

"I knew kids would jump on it so I took it to school, but my mom got mad," Rivera said. "She said I didn't pay attention to school. Sometimes, she hid it."

But Rivera always found the glove, always found a game and eventually found himself pitching at a two-player tryout for the Yankees in Panama City when he was 19.

Herb Raybourn, who was the Yankees' Latin American scout at the time, liked everything about Rivera. He liked his flexible arm, his precise delivery, his lanky build, his athletic ability and his fastball, so he signed him for the modest bonus of $3,500. A steal? How about a double steal, since Rivera recommended his younger cousin, Ruben, a center fielder, to Raybourn, and he also signed with the Yanks for $3,500. Now both talented players are in the majors.

"I'm not surprised by what Mariano has done," said Raybourn, who now scouts for the Toronto Blue Jays. "Nothing scares him. You can throw that kid into any situation and he'll kill you."

Some of Rivera's toughness and competitive desires were born because of the giggling girls. The giggling girls? Rivera's resiliency goes back to playing baseball in the afternoon after elementary school with older cousins and with some giggling girls watching and scrutinizing.

"I hated to lose," said Rivera, clinging to the cardboard again. "When I lose, you know, little boys hear it from the little girls. You know how they are. Oh, you lose. Ha, ha. Because of kids like that, I always wanted to win. I never ever wanted to lose. I'm still like that."

Rivera's minor league career started with a flourish in 1990 when the closer pitched a no-hitter in his only start on the last day of the season for Class A Tampa to notch the e.r.a. title in the Gulf Coast League with a puny 0.17. He overcame serious elbow surgery in 1992 and his struggles with learning to speak English to complete six years in the minors with a 27-18 record, a 2.38 e.r.a. and 380 strikeouts in 430 1/3 innings. The 6-foot-2-inch, 168-pound pitcher joined the Yanks in 1995, showed a glimpse of what was to come with three impressive outings in the divisional series and has made an incredible impact this season.

"Yeah, he's surprised me," Torre said. "I never saw that explosiveness on his fastball in spring training. He never says a thing. You don't even know he's around. Until he throws his fastball."

So the kid from Panama with the cardboard glove and the $3,500 bonus is the most pivotal pitcher on a $55 million team filled with renowned names. So he is happy whether he is in the bullpen "doing nothing," in the clubhouse explaining the value of a shoe box or on the mound fashioning another hitless streak.

"If you think about it, 15 innings without a hit is almost two games," said Rivera, finally reflecting on his perfect run that ended three weeks ago. "Without one hit! I wasn't really paying attention to that. I focused on each game. I never think about the innings. I saw that was 15 innings and I said, 'Man, how did I do it?' It's pretty amazing."

Just like Rivera.

Photo: For some consistency on a shaky pitching staff, the Yankees wantto keep Mariano Rivera as a middle reliever. (Barton Silverman/The New York Times)